The applicants complain that their driver's pass broke down shortly after receipt and through no fault of their own and that they had to pay a new fee when applying for a new pass. The National Ombudsman considers this complaint to be well-founded. Several taxi drivers filed a complaint with the National Ombudsman about the way Kiwa handled their reports of broken driver cards. In the meantime, the complete investigation report published by the National Ombudsman.
Taxi drivers are required by law to use a driver's pass during their work. Kiwa supplies these driver passes and charges € 117 excluding VAT for this. If a pass breaks, the driver must request a new pass from Kiwa. The driver has to pay again for a new pass.
Taxi drivers complained to Kiwa that their passes broke shortly after receipt and through no fault of their own. That is why they thought it was unfair that they also had to pay for a new pass. Kiwa responded that drivers are required by law to pay for a new pass. Drivers did not have to pay again only if it turned out within a year of delivery by Kiwa that the defective pass had been produced incorrectly. According to them, drivers would then be eligible for Kiwa's so-called leniency scheme.
In this case, taxi rides were registered on the driver's passes. According to Kiwa, this meant that the passes were working the moment Kiwa delivered them. That is why, according to Kiwa, they were not produced incorrectly. For that reason, the drivers were not eligible for leniency and they also had to pay for a new pass.
During the investigation of the National Ombudsman it became clear that Kiwa had started a technical investigation into the broken driver passes. During its own investigation, Kiwa temporarily lowered its prices for all new passes to €30. Kiwa also reimbursed the costs for new passes to drivers who had complained to the ombudsman.
Subsequently, Kiwa's investigation revealed that the driver passes that had broken had memory problems, which prevented them from working properly. Kiwa informed the National Ombudsman that it has now released a new version of the pass. The new version has no memory problems. If such a pass breaks (in the future), Kiwa will not reimburse the costs for a new pass, unless the defective pass was produced incorrectly. Kiwa will check whether the broken card was working at the time of delivery.
The National Ombudsman notes that the drivers' complaints have been resolved satisfactorily. They were refunded the costs for their new pass. Kiwa informed the ombudsman that it will handle future complaints about broken driver cards in the same way as before.
The National Ombudsman believes that it is Kiwa's task to provide properly functioning cards. Those passes should last longer than a few weeks or a few months. If a pass turns out to be broken within a year, the driver is eligible for leniency according to Kiwa's leniency scheme and does not have to pay for a new pass. Unless the driver has not handled the old pass with care. The ombudsman considers it important that Kiwa does not only check whether the pass was working at the time of delivery. At a later time, it may also turn out that the pass has not been produced properly.
The ombudsman also believes that Kiwa should conduct its own investigation into the cause of the problem in the event of complaints about defective passes. If the examination of the pass shows that the problem was not caused by the production of the pass, but by careless use by the driver, Kiwa may refuse to grant leniency. Kiwa must then make clear to the driver why it believes that it is being used carelessly, so that the driver can tell his side of the story. This applies to the old cases with memory problems, but also to future broken driver passes.
The National Ombudsman finds the complaints about Kiwa well-founded and recommends Kiwa to:
- handle any future complaints about faulty driver passes with memory problems (version V14) as it ultimately handled the complainants' complaints;
- to properly apply the leniency scheme in future complaints.
